


The Refuge

by Honey_Thats_Rich



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Growth, Healing, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-17 14:05:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18966751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Honey_Thats_Rich/pseuds/Honey_Thats_Rich
Summary: Crutchie's lost time at the refuge leads him to meet a new friend, whom he becomes close with and helps heal from the pains and the traumas of that dreadful place.





	1. On His Back

Crutchie was tossed into the refuge on his back as soon as the handcuffs were removed from his wrists. He gasped at the harsh impact of the ground that knocked the wind out of him and looked around. It was exactly as Jack had described it and drawn it, worse, even. He looked on in pain and pity for those who were there much longer than he would be. There were boys piled together on beds, the room was stained with drops of blood and sweat and the odor that permeated the ill-lit prison was enough to make someone sick. The room was quiet as the boys stared at the newest arrival. Crutchie swallowed the lump in his throat and pushed himself to the bunk he was designated in the overcrowded cell. 

Including himself, Crutchie counted 8 people on the bunks, plus one extra that he noticed was curled up in the corner of the room. The boy looked sickly small, wearing what appeared to be nothing more than a large shirt. He had himself facing away from the rest of the room, tapping his head against the wall in a zoned out rhythm. He did not look okay. 

Mustering up his strength, Crutchie hobbled over to them, carefully getting down to their level. He felt a pang of sadness as they flinched away without a word being said or any contact being given. 

“H-hey, uh..” Crutchie didn’t really know what to say. He couldn’t ask if they were alright, for he knew the answer. “My name’s Crutchie…” He plopped down to a seated position, his condition making it near impossible for him to move with any form of grace. He frowned sadly when the boy only flinched again and pulled themself closer together. “I ain’t gonna hurt ya…” The door slid open.

One man entered the room, walking directly towards the boy in the corner. Crutchie listened as the boy began to hyperventilate, tapping his head against the wall in a quicker manner. 

“Move aside Crip!” The man shoved Crutchie away and reached for the boy’s arm. 

The boy snatched his arm close to himself and pressed himself against the wall. He struggled weakly against the man as he was pulled from the ground by his boney wrist. 

“Come here runt!” The man grew frustrated and yanked the boy, but he didn’t stand. Still being held by their wrist, the boy landed on his back and Crutchie gasped at the sight of their face.  
Their face was bruised, an angry mess of black and blue, a few scars littered around their lips. On their neck were bruises made by hands and spots of bruises that trailed all over the delicate skin. Their arms and legs were smaller than he had ever seen. Crutchie tried to get up to help, seeing the utter fear in the boys eyes. Then Crutchie realized something. The boy that was being dragged out of the room. 

Was a girl.


	2. The Letter

Crutchie sits against the bed post, not willing to move yet, for a considerable amount of time; his good leg didn’t feel so good anymore, his side was sore from being struck with his own crutch and there were open wounds that stung at the open contact of air. He ended up staring at the corner of the closed door in a zoned out state. How long had that girl been here? Why did they drag her out like that? She seemed quiet and timid, so why would she be getting a lashing? The door slid open again and the girl was quite literally thrown into the room. Again, Crutchie noticed that none of the other boys seemed to even acknowledge her existence. The door closed harshly and she painfully pulled herself along the floor, releasing pained hisses and muted whimpers. Whatever pain she didn’t vocalize was clear on her face as her eyes were squinted shut and her teeth visibly grinding together. She looked worse than when he had first seen her. 

Again, Crutchie was at a loss of what to do. He wanted so badly to go over to her, but at the same time, what would he say or do? It wasn’t like he could get up the ladder to his bunk. Crutchie stared at her for a moment more before leaning his head against the post of the bed. His injuries and tiredness consumed his body and he fell into an uncomfortable sleep.

It was the creaking of the cell door that stirred Crutchie first. He didnt fully wake up until there was a noticeable shuffling noise from the corner of the room accompanied but masculine grunts. He opened his eyes begrudgingly and they tiredly adjusted to the lack of light. He glanced around to focus on the source of the sounds. Crutchie stared in horror at the sight in the corner of the room.

A guard was on top of the girl in the corner, pressing her against the wall with his hand gripping her neck. Her right hand was firmly pressed to her mouth and her left, pushing against the floor trapped beneath her assaulter's. Her body was being jerked up against the wall and her eyes focused on the ceiling, closing in pain every so often. There was a moment when her eyes left the ceiling and glanced elsewhere… directly at Crutchie. Her light eyes widened, then shut in embarrassment. 

“H-hey! Get off a ‘er!” Crutchie pushed himself from the ground and used his body weight to shove the man to the side. The girl stared up at him, frightened, and pulled her legs to herself and shifting away from the guard.

“Why you little-” the guard took his belt and struck Crutchie numerous times, Crutchie curling in a ball and covering his head to protect himself somewhat from the blows. The metal of the belt cut into his shoulder and he winced, but maintaining his silence. Soon, a warm body pressed onto of his as a shield. Peeking through his fingers, Crutchie saw the girl above him, holding her hands out to protect him from the blows. 

After striking the both of them a few more times, the guard pulled his pants up and stood up.  
“Fucking runts. Might as well jump, crip, you won't last long here.” He gave him a swift kick to the rib cage and left the room through that creaking door.

Painfully, they got up. The girl scrambled back to her corner and tugged down the oversized shirt that served as her only clothes. Her poorly cut hair fell in front of her face and hid the majority of her eyes, leaving barely any window for sight. When Crutchie sat up she watched with timid eyes, still unsure of the blonde boy before her. Unlike the guards, he had a softer, kinder, face void of any evil. In the dull light of the room she dicifered his eyes as blue. She carefully gazed at him, studying him and his injuries. Her eyes quickly trained to a new gash on his upper bicep, tearing through his ratty shirt and staining it red. 

She motioned for him to come closer. 

Wincing, he obliged and crawled closer to her, but not too close. He observed her as she readjusted her position on the floor and brought her hand up to his arm. She gingerly traced her fingers to the edge of the tear and finished it off, removing the remainder of the sleeve from his arm. She took the sleeve and smoothed it onto her lap before centering it over the gash. Crutchie tried not to display his distress and pass off as the strong man he knew he wasn't, but he found himself wincing despite the tenderness of her wrapping his arm. Once all tied and done, she returned her line of sight to his. 

“Thanks.” He smiled softly at her. 

There is silence.

“D-does that ‘appen a lot?” He was fearful of her answer. She sniffed and nodded once, diverting her eyes from his. 

“We’re gonna get out of here. I’m gonna escape like my brother Jack did and I’ll bring you with me.” She looked him over, her eyes displaying the unlikeliness of that happening in his current state. “Once I get a little better. We’ll escape and go back to the lodging house.” Crutchie sat up against the wall next to her and tilted his head back. “You’ll like the Newsies. We always got each other’s backs. No madda’ what.” The girl listened to Crutchie talk about his boys, but tried to prevent herself from getting hopeful, but, to Crutchie’s surprise, she allowed herself the faintest of smiles. Hesitant and still timid, her mind began to bond with the small crippled boy who had tried to defend her. She observed him confused when he pulled himself to the cell bars and peeked out. 

Crutchie looked at the guard outside and was thankful that it wasn’t the same guard that had defiled the girl earlier in the night.

“Excuse me, sir?” 

“What do you want kid?” 

Crutchie fidgeted with his hands and looked kindly at the guard.

“Do you by chance have a piece of paper… and a pencil? I want to write to my friends.” He paused in thought. “Just to let them know I’m ok…” The guard rolled his eyes and got up to retrieve the paper and pencil. He handed them to the boy and sat back down to continue his shift. 

Crutchie crawled back over and held the paper against his leg. 

“Dear Jack, greetings from the refuge…” Crutchie scribbled sloppily, thinking of what he wanted to write in his letter. 

“How are you? I’m okay… Guess I wasn’t much help yesterday.” The girl tiredly watched him write and speak his letter.

“Snyder soaked me real good with my crutch.” he tapped his lip with the pencil.

“Oh yeah Jack, this is Crutchie by the way.” He smiles to himself and the weak scoff of a laugh to his right.

“These here guards, they is rude. They say ‘jump, boy you jump or you’re screwed,’ but the food ain’t so badly so far, cause so far they ain’t brung us no food… Ha. Ha.” He set the paper down for a moment and glanced at the window, only being able to see the back of another building.

“I miss the rooftop. Sleeping right out in the open in your penthouse in the sky. There’s a cool breeze blowin’, even in July. Anyway, so guess what? There’s this secret escape plan I got: Tie a sheet to the bed, toss the end out the window, climb down then take off like a shot…” He grinned sweetly and almost proudly at the girl beside him, but his smile quickly fell. 

“Maybe though, not tonight. I ain’t slept and my leg still ain’t right. Hey, but Pulitzer, he’s going down and then Jack, I was thinking we might just go like you were saying-” He closed his eyes like he had when Jack described Santa Fe to him. 

“Where it’s clean and green and pretty with no buildings in your way. And you’re riding Palominos every day. Once that train makes-” 

“Shh!” Another boy hissed from one of the bunks. 

“Damn this place… I’ll be fine. Good as new. Oh, but there’s one thing I need you to do. On the rooftop you said that a family looks out for each other, so you tell all the fellas, for me, to protect one another. The end. Your friend.. Your best friend... Your brother.” He paused and skipped a line.

“Crutchie.” He went to fold his letter, but stopped, skipping a few more lines.

“Oh and Jack, there’s someone I’ll be bringing with me I want you to meet. I don’t know her name, but she’s helped me and I think she’s kind of sweet. She’s been here for too long and the guards treat her very wrong.” He wrote ‘very’ in big letters. “Again, the end. Your brother, Crutchie.” He set his pencil down and glanced at the girl who’s tired head had rested against his shoulder.

He sighed and folded the paper up, allowing himself to succumb to sleep once again, but this time, his head gently resting atop hers and their shared body heat keeping him warm.


	3. Released

The next few days passed terribly slow, the only glimmers of light being visits from Specs and Jack, and his leg getting better. He wasn’t beaten around as much as he expected, only when he intervened with a guard assaulting the girl, whose name he had yet to learn. She had become his only friend, the other boys too hopeless and beaten down to pay him any mind. He gave her a nickname, with her permission. Curly, he called her. He explained to her that he wanted to call her that because he liked the unruly curls that sprung from her head. The black ringlets went every which way, only growing to the length of her shoulders and were cut in a way that gave her a curled row of bangs that just stopped at her eyebrows. Having her there made being in the refuge easier. 

It wasn’t more than a few days when the police came to the refuge, unlocking the cells and distributing clean clothes to the boys that were locked up there. When the police reached the cell Crutchie and Curly were in, they tossed in the clean clothes to each of the kids. Their eyes lingered on Curly, but they left the cell anyways. Curly picked up the clothes and pressed her fingers into the newer fabric, still in disbelief that they were being let out. Even as she exited the Refuge hand in hand with Crutchie, it just didn’t seem real. He had said something to her, but her mind was too preoccupied to realize what, but she followed him as he followed a couple of police officers who were detaining the man of her nightmares. 

“We’re gonna be okay.” Crutchie’s smile was the brightest she had ever seen it and she wanted to believe him, but her mind was still stuck in the Refuge, trapped in the cell it had been in for almost a year.   
She kept her hand attached to his as they approached a mob of people at The World. 

“Officer’s if you please!” Someone called from the front and Crutchie hobbled forward, pulling Curly with him.

“Jack look, it’s Crutchie!” One of the boys shouted joyfully as Crutchie entered the parting of the boys. 

“Hiya fellas! Did’ya miss me?” They cheered in response. “I got somethin for ya’s; a gift straight from the refuge. Bring ‘em out fellas!” Crutchie called to the police officers and they dragged Snyder into the group. 

“Jack with those drawings, you’ve made an eloquent argument for shutting down the refuge, be assured that Mr. Snyder will be facing punishment for all of his offences. Officers take him away!” 

“Oh, please your highness, may I do the honors?” 

With a nod from the Governor, Crutchie took the handcuffs from the policeman. There was a small, but wonderful taste of justice for Crutchie as he hit the man away with his crutch, sending him to prison for good, knowing that he would be locked away for what he did to all the boys in the refuge and most importantly, Curly. Crutchie intended to make a full claim to whomever he needed to to make sure what happened to Curly would not go unknown to law officials. 

The newsies erupted in excitement when Jack slammed his coins down onto the collection box. Crutchie squeezed Curly’s hand when she jumped and frantically looked to him.

“It’s alright, they’s just a bit rowdy. None of ‘em will hurt ya.” he spoke amidst the noise. Jack grabbed his papers and found his way back to Crutchie’s side. 

“An’ who is this Crutch?”

“Jack, this is Curly, my friend from the Refuge.” Jack chuckled to himself.

“Leave it to you to make friends in a place like the Refuge. Nice ta’ meet you, Curly.” Jack held out his hand, but Curly didn’t shake it right away, instead, she stared at it warily. Jack looked to Crutchie.

“She’s been through a lot. She doesn’t speak.” He turned to Curly. “You’re alright, this is Jack, the one I wrote the letter to, he won’t hurt’cha.” Trusting Crutchie’s word she timidly shook Jack’s hand. 

“Hey, I know the Refuge is a horrible place, an’ you looks like you’s been there a while, but don’t you worry, we’ll get you patched up… Up ‘ere too.” Jack motioned to his head and pulled Crutchie in for another thankful hug. Taking another look at the scrawny girl who looked like she was about to topple over Jack patted Crutchie on the shoulder. “Hey, Crutch, why don’t you take her back to the lodging house an’ show ‘er around. I’ll cover ya’. When I get back, I’ll talk to Kloppman an’ see about gettin’ you a job at the lodging house, unless you’s wanna sell papes?” After a few moments of hesitation Jack smiled kindly. “Don’t sweat it, I’ll leave that up to you to decide… You’ll be alright, kid.”


End file.
